Dennis Muren, A.S.C. (Visual Effects/ILM)

"The trick is, it doesn't really matter what the gear is. We have great gear, now, and the work is great. But, in some hands, great gear can look lousy. It's all in what you do with it."

Somewhere in a quiet industrial park in Northern California, an innocuous smoked glass door leads to the most amazing mixture of movie magic in the world. Young computer nerds who look as if they still don't shave mix easily with distinguished, slightly balding, and bespeckled mavens of another generation. "Distinguished?" laughs one of the "older generation" of effects gurus. "I don't know about that. George Lucas, ...

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